


Withered

by Dimensional



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Fights, Insanity, Internal Conflict, Magic, Modern Era, Mystery, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Suspense, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-05 20:47:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14626737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dimensional/pseuds/Dimensional
Summary: A young queen is thrown into a position of power after the untimely death of her parents, forced to engage in a chess match with an ambitious anarchist for the future of her city.





	Withered

The roof of the building gave a perfect view, overlooking everything else the city Lousatine had to offer. Despite it being one of the tallest structures, it’s often ignored in favour of the more “tourist-worthy” locations, such as the royal palace. Naturally, these traits make it a very convenient place to begin a heist. 

Four men stood upon this roof with that very intention in mind, each of them wearing black, filtered masks that scrambled the sound of their voice when they spoke.

“Alright, we do this quick and we do this clean,” The tallest one said, pointing a finger at each of his accomplices, “If anything goes wrong we’re all on the queen’s chopping block. Last time I’ll ask, do we all know what to do?”

“Chute to the palace, have the mole open the way, do our parts, grab the credits, and get out. I missing anything?” The man to his left says.

“Proper grammar.” The third man sneers.

“Go to Hell, Diamond.” He snaps back.

“No, dammit! He’s Spade. I’m Diamond, the kid’s Club, and you’re Heart!” The tall man groans, “Jesus, how are we going to do this if you can’t remember the damn aliases?” 

“Calm down, I’m messing with ya! You’ve told us our names a thousand times. Just trying to light the mood a little bit. We’re all tense about this thing.” 

“I’m not tense,” Spade chirps, “The new queen’s an idiot.”

“Maybe, but if this falls south she’s smart enough to know how to order an execution.” Heart laughs

“Hey, assholes,” Club interrupts, “Let’s get a move on it.”

The men stand up, shuffling through the wooden box resting between them. Club produces a handful of gem-covered bracelets, passing one out for each of them along with a parachute. 

“The chutes and suits are cloaked, but feel free to test them out before we jump. These charms are gonna be fun, too. Guy I got them from sold me quality. Each one’s got what you’re going to need for your part. Everything here isn’t exactly easy to come by, so don’t lose it.” 

“Woah, hold on a minute, where are the weapons?” Heart speaks up.

“On your belt, they extend when you press on your belt buckle. They’re not meant for firefights, so let’s stick to the shadows. Only put a round in a soldier if he’s getting smart.”

“Let’s do this shit!” Spade laughs, pulling the straps of his parachute tight.

The rest do the same, edging closer to the side of the roof. One by one they leap, free falling through the air. They're quickly pull their parachutes open, as they become invisible within the night sky.

It’s impossible to miss their target, a child could point out where the palace was. The building’s much more grand than the maze of skyscrapers that surround it, and marble statues of previous royals plagues the rooftop and staircases. 

Pillars stretched from the massive balcony at the front, which had floods of guards and soldiers on constant patrol. 

There was a position towards the middle of the palace roof that the four land on, thankfully not drawing any attention.

“Cloaking tech is still on, everyone make it?” Diamond asks.

“Here.” Spade nods, before realizing no one can see him.

“Yeah.” Club says.

“Think we’re golden.” Heart rubs his hands together in anticipation.  
“Good,” Diamond begins to creep towards the pyramid-shaped skylight, “You're mole better come through, Club.”

“Give me a sec.” Club glances back and forth, keeping an eye on the armoured guards. He pulls out a disk-shaped screen and punches in a message, “And… heat seeking cams down.”

“Nice,” Spade says, “So guess I’m up.” 

Spade raises his wrist to the glass as a red light is reflected on to the interior floor. Even when he lowers his hand the light remains, and he extends both arms to his sides.

“Arms are up, grab on.”

They blindly reach out, all grabbing ahold of Spade’s sleeves as the light illuminates again. A moment later and they find themselves in the halls of the palace. The walls are fit with intricate gold and white designs that spread as far as the eye can see, with glossy marble floors and blood red carpet. 

Similar to the roof, guards continuously pace in specific patterns, as if they were mechs. However unlike the deadly machines, guards can’t pick up on thermals. 

“Okay, this is good. This is going better than I thought it would.” Diamond softly says as he glances over his shoulder, “You know what to do, Club. Security center is near the Queen’s room.”

“On it.” Immediately Club begins to head towards the opposite side of the hall as the others make their way for the vault.

The vault is located towards the middle of the palace. Security is much more tight while approaching, but it was nothing compared to how it has been in the past.

The group had thought about this same job in the past, but with the recent exchange of power management is less organized than usual.

Meaning the only real thing standing between them and all the credits they could pocket was…

“The Clarification Room.” Diamond says with a bit of strain as he stares at the large, electronic steel doors in front of him, “We gotta wait for Club to shut it down and we’ll be-”

“It’s done.” Club beeps through a communicator as the door slowly creaks open. 

“Already?” Spade asks, surprised as he glances to the guards simply watch the door open, “Why aren’t they doing anything?”

“My guy got a word out it's a routinely lock check. You’ve got time before they actually come over here.”

“Well I’ll be damned, you really are as good as they say!” Heart laughs, only to be scolded by Diamond.

“Keep your voice down! We don’t have time for celebrating yet, let’s go.” 

Spade, Heart, and Diamond take care in entering the compact middle-room between the palace and vault. The small, dark room is completely empty apart from the second door and an environmental scanner meant to verify all personal.

Upon stepping in, the cloaks no longer work, and all three men are able to see each other once again.

“What the hell?” Diamond asks, seeing the other two are just as surprised as he is.

“Relax, it’s just a charm jammer. Cameras and turrets are still down.” Club reassures.

“I don’t remember there ever being a charm jammer in the blueprints!” Heart accuses.

“That’s because there weren’t any,” Diamond scowls, “What’s going on, Club?”

There is a moment of silence, before the doors of the vault are pulled shut behind the three thieves. Heart panics, pressing his belt down as a long, dart-like device extends out. He holds it tightly in his hands, aiming it at the door. 

Spade reacts similarly, hastily attempting to get his own to extend as Diamond begins to shout. “You son of a bitch! What do you think you’re doing?”

“What do you think? The bastard is screwing us!” Heart shouts as he blindly shoots at the door in a furious rage, “He thinks he can take all the prize for himself!”

The bullets are destroyed on impact with the door, but this doesn’t stop Heart from continuously firing in hopes to cause any noticeable damage.

There is a large, audible cranking noise, and before Diamond is able to cry out that the turrets have been activated, an onslaught of bullets penetrate Heart’s chest. He lifelessly crumbles to the ground. 

Spade lets out a terrified shriek, and not too long after he, too, is torn apart by the hellfire. His blood coats the wall as he smacks the cold metal, silent.

Diamond can only helplessly wait for his turn as the guns quickly take aim at him. He closes his eyes, and spends his last moments imagining him in a much more innocent time rather than dwelling on the bitterness of betrayal.

And everything soon becomes nothing.

~~~

Club had long left the security room before contacting the rag-tag team for the last time. Truth be told, all he really did was open the door. It shuts automatically after a bit of time, which only then activates the scanning system and guns for safety reasons. 

He didn’t want them to die, he’s not a sadist, but it was absolutely necessary for this to go exactly as planned. Credits don’t concern him, though, and these men would never go along with anything if they couldn’t gain a few extra zeros on their bank account. 

Also, loose ends are the downfall of every good plan. 

It’s just a convenient distraction and a bit of chaos for a job that no one would volunteer for. The guards will all be cleaning up the mess, which should mean resources spent figuring out what’s happening rather than what they should be protecting. 

The queen’s room being so close to the security room is either a very nice coincidence, or lady luck really was on his side here.

The pea-shooters on their belts may not be very good at knocking down walls, but it does just fine against sleeping royalties. Her room only has two guards outside of it, but it was only going to be a couple of moments before the alarms are sounded and her room is put on lockdown.

Cloaking is extremely effective to take down the guards with, and he soon opens the door to the dark chambers.

Across from him was the grand, and honestly oversized, bed of her majesty. It was finally time to put an end to everything. 

The alarms trigger, blaring through what he assumes to be the entire palace. Blue lights rapidly flash, illuminating the whole room as he points the weapon towards the soon-to-be-awake queen.

However, the flashing lights reveal that the queen isn’t in her bed at all. He’s alone in the room. Club becomes filled with a rush of anxiety as his thoughts race through his mind.

She isn’t here. It’s the middle of the night and the queen isn’t here. This whole thing was completely pointless. Those men died for absolutely nothing. He’s going to be caught. She’ll recognize him immediately, and he’ll be executed on the spot. The thermals were probably working again, how was he going to get out?

No. No, wait, this is her room, the queen’s room, so there has to be something useful to him. 

If he can’t finish this today, he’ll just have to make sure he has a better hand than her. Actually, come to think of it, there is one thing in here that might be worth taking.

In the far right side of the room stands a great fireplace. Currently unlit, but above it are a number of her cherished items.

Specifically, propped to the wall and tucked inside a glass case is the royal ancient spear. A spear flourishing with gems on it’s handle, with a spearhead carved from what was rumoured to be bones of some sort of beast. He couldn’t recall what she said, but he knows enough to realize this was definitely something of value to her. 

Funny she left it in her room of all places, and not buried underneath the earth in an ancient tomb with thousands of traps, but maybe she just wasn’t smart enough to think of something like that.

Either way, there wasn’t much doubt in his mind that this was some sort of royal weapon, probably charmed with something made illegal decades ago. 

It was definitely a long shot, but he aims the gun for the glass, fires, and watches as the shards fly.

He hears the guards stomp their way towards the bedroom. The spear won’t cloak with him, so he'll have to take care of them before leaving. 

Wait, that’s right he has a cloak. As long as he doesn’t get picked up by the heat cameras before he leaves and can sneak this spear out, this’ll work out just as good. Maybe, if he plays his cards right, this could be even better.

The doors swing open as the wave of guards swarm the room, weapons ready to fire. They slowly and unawarely walk by the culprit as he begins to reload his weapon.

**Author's Note:**

> All comments/criticism are highly appreciated, please let me know what you like or disliked about the story and I hope you got something from it one way or another.


End file.
